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Before I start to buy parts and build my feather id like some viewpoints on the design and any flaws. There is a picture on my profile of the design.
Spec-
chassis and side skirts from 2mm steel
front and rear wedge from 4mm steel
powered by 4 of 18v challenge drill motors
2 30amp electronize speedos
Sounds all great. Only thing I can think of is changing the 2mm steel skirts to 4ish mm aluminium which might be just about the same weight but plenty tougher.
not sure wether i can afford ali at the moment but ill try to get some
Sounds good! Other than the shape and motors its pretty much like what mine is gonna be like. Have you made any test builds yet? I found I could chop about 10cm off my wooden prototype.
Good luck with the build.
Ok what do you reckon i should prototype with?
Ive used both cardox and woodox. :)
Lol AJ. Mark, if you design every last bolt to the nearest mm (even the simplest 2D CAD programs such as visio are plenty sufficiant) then there shouldnt really be a need for a prototype, so you can possibly save both time & money.
I will always stand by the crayon and napkin method :)
Mark, theres no need to prototype...Just think it through, draw it out (yes, good old fashoned pencil and paper) and then build it!
Thats how our machines get built. (Sometime we dont even go through the pencil and paper stage! Straight from a sick twisted mind to reality in one hit!!)
Unless youre overlooking some fairly important bit of physics during the welding of your frame and you need this little lovely and good-hearted woman to point out to you and your companion that the frame is twisted and under tension.
They did not believe me until they sawed through one of the beams. The resulting TWANG was music to my ears.
Yer...Building A robot with free-lance engineering as I like to call it is probs a bad idea.. as Babeth said things often get cut in half...Check my profile pic for proof lol.
Made the chassi 70mm to narrow :)
lol! better luck next time :)
Lol i know about free lance engineering- just get a lump of metal and hope it works and if it doesnt melt it back into shape. When any of you are trying for sponsorship or to get free materials what do you find works best- email, letters, phone etc.
I prefer email personnally.
Basically (not so much of a problem now) but if you do it by the phone or face to face then your age can be guessed and if you sound young, they are less likely to offer you help.
Never liked letters, takes too long to set them out properly etc.
LOL, Dave, your free lance engineering is more like tack it on, if it looks good keep it lol. They seem to work in the end tho, once theyve been cut off a few times and welded back on lol.
Erm, sponsorship.. It really depends on how big the company is, where the company is etc. If its a local model shop, then it will always be best to go down and talk to them. (Ed hoppit made a good report on how to get sponsorship) But i suggest that if it is a larger company, then an e-mail is always good. they get checked daily. Also it will give you time to think what you are saying through, and check things over and change them if appropriate.
Always be truthful when you are trying to get sponsors, dont promise things that may not happen!
Well ive found that companies prefer to dismiss emails. Ive written a few letters to send off.
Ive got a space 280mm wide. Will 2 drill motors with wheels fit in this space?
No, youll need about 310-320mm minimum (from previous expirience of squeezed in drill motors). Unless of course you can put the motors beside each other, and the wheels at different points.
ok well ill just assume my prototype is that long even though it isnt.
Pic of prototype on profile
Looking good (and should be easy to make out of say, 10mm ali). Make sure you put armour triangles (if you know what I mean) between each of the wedges and skirts though, in the final version, otherwise hozizontal spinners will enjoy catching all the edges.
Not too sure what you mean about armour triangles. You mean just extra triangles under the wedge and skirts?
How much enough 10mm ali set me back as i was planning on making it from 2mm steel?
Armour triangles would be for those right-angled parts on your prototype - the spaces between the front/back wedges and the side skirts. If a horizontal spinner came along it could catch on to the side parts of the wedge/skirts and bash the robot. Putting armour triangles across those spaces means that the spinners teeth would be more likely to glance off the armour than bite into your robot.
Hope that helps - the prototypes looking good :)
Lenny
Oh i understand what you mean. I was planning on doing that anyways.
10mm ali would require no welding what-so-ever, but Im sure 2mm steel - welded - would work (though Id imagine 2mm steel to be quite vunerable to deformation) maybe a sub-chassis of steel box section with 2mm steel panels bolted on would be a good idea (though more costly).
The triangles basically work like this on Biohazard (american robot) - http://www.teamkiss.com/Vegas/Biohazard.jpghttp://www.teamkiss.com/Vegas/Biohazard.jpg
they prevent any edges from being exposed to, say, horizontal spinners. In biohazards case, this is just done with hinged skirts cut off at particular angles, though this would be easy to implement on your design too.
Oh, lenny beat me too it :)... naaa well...
Lol, sorry Ewan :)
What kind of cost are we talking about for the aluminium? Would you use bolts on ali instead of welding?
Yes, and Ive found you can get decent amounts of ali quite cheap (about £60 for all youll ever need to build the robot) if you just walk around the back of a metal stockist and ask nicely :)
Ok thanks, its just a shame there arent any metal stockists nearby, being in the middle of nowhere and all that.
Ewan roughly what were the dimensions you used for mm 04 v2 because I have someone who is going to laser cut my steel/ali and i need to supply him with measurements.
Its 420mm wide - so 400mm inner width
One last thing, how long is it and how wide are 100mm blue tyres
Firstly, how long it is, Im not going to tell you that. You cant copy every last detail of your robot, Im sure youll find a size which fits you best. Also, email James Cooper regarding the wheels, youll find the address on http://www.robochallenge.co.ukwww.robochallenge.co.uk somewhere.